…Ride On

This Thursday, I’m giving some thought to the open road. Specifically, all the chatter and announcements surrounding self-driving cars.

It looks like, ready or not, they’ll be taking over the roads in the next decade…if not sooner.

In case you missed it, this week saw a major announcement from Ford, who has plans to roll out their first self-driving car fleets in the next five years.

Not to be outdone, Uber announced that they’ll have around 100 driverless cars picking up riders in Pittsburgh as soon as this month. Which is good news for riders who don’t like obligatory small talk with strangers, but bad news for the many Uber drivers.

While the technology is cool, and obviously the next phase in the machines’ rise to power, it does beg a lot of questions. First and foremost, what are we giving up if hand this power over to a robot? (other than eventually our freedom)

While statistically speaking, machines are better drivers than humans, who it turns out, aren’t perfect. They also lack a certain human judgement. Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure, we’re in for a lot of change.